For those of you who don’t know Maria Sirotkina, she’s a dynamic growth strategist who has successfully exited two startups and now serves as a fractional CMO, specializing in scaling FinTech and EdTech companies from 0 to 8 figures in revenue. Maria is known for building and optimizing high-performance growth teams and is a true powerhouse when it comes to community building—having grown one brand’s community to over 150,000 members in just a year. Her ability to blend strategic marketing with authentic brand engagement makes her a standout force in today’s startup ecosystem.

In this podcast episode, we dive into practical growth strategies with Maria Sirotkina, touching on:

• The power of user-generated content (UGC) and why video testimonials convert better than traditional formats
• Tools that simplify collecting and organizing testimonials—including tagging features that help marketers use the right testimonial at the right time
• Common mistakes junior marketers make, especially when it comes to leveraging social proof effectively
• How Maria uses UGC as a core growth lever, especially in conversion optimization
• A brief walkthrough of her favorite marketing stack that saves time and boosts performance
• Her LinkedIn viral post on email marketing, which Adi shares has already been sent to her email list
• How to follow Maria’s work via LinkedIn, her website, and her weekly growth blog on Substack
• A few personal moments, including the story behind a 2014 face mask selfie and how Maria’s skin still looks flawless

This episode is packed with smart tactics and thoughtful insights for founders, marketers, and anyone building brands in today’s noisy digital world.